A Year After the Oil Spill, the Gulf is Recovering—But Doubts Remain

I have a Going Green piece up on the mainpage that examines the ecological impact of the BP oil spill on the Gulf and its coast, a year after the Deepwater Horizon sunk. The verdict: so far the environmental damage seems much less than many scientists feared initially, thanks to an aggressive response, hungry bacteria and a lot of good luck. But crude still remains entrenched in parts of the Louisiana coast and parts of the Gulf floor are heavy with oiled microbes and invertebrates. A year isn’t long enough to draw definite conclusions—the experience of the Exxon Valdez spill tells us that there may be long-term effects that have yet to be felt. Still—could have been worse.